Sunflower
by SkullThread
Summary: When Astrid was very small her father once told her that she was much like a sunflower. Strong and stubborn.


When Astrid was very small her father once told her that she was much like a sunflower. Standing tall and thick in the harsh weather of Berk was all of the Vikings jobs, so this not only confused Astrid but insulted her.

"Whada mean?" she whined at her father after he told her.

The man, known to Berk as Clime the Average, laughed richly at his daughter's expression.

The two of them were standing beside the Hofferson household where the sunflowers were planted. Months before they had planted them while Clime told Astrid all about how his mother had planted the flower even with the risk of them burning or being destroyed in some way during a dragon attack. Astrid's grandmother had died the winter before.

"Well, Astrid," Clime said and gestured toward the plants, "You see how strong it is?"

Stubbornly, Astrid turned her nose up at it, she said, "No."

Clime merely kept talking, "You take your hand and wrap it around the stem," he pointed to the very base of the flower where it jumped out of the soil, "Right there."

Astrid, even through her stubbornness, did as her father instructed. She stared stupidly at her hand around the plant. Her tiny child fingers were just old enough to overlap a little about the thick stem.

"You go try to pull it up," Clime said. He sat down beside the garden, waiting.

Astrid looked at her father and then at the plant in her fingers. She tilted her head up to the blooming yellow petals and brown seeds. It's just a flower, she thought lightly. Astrid yanked on the plant.

"You see?" Clime said mildly, "It's stronger than you think."

Astrid glared over her shoulder at him. She tugged on the plant some more, until finally she fell back. Under her fingernails were chunks of green and white stem. Her head shot up to stare in puzzlement at the flower before her, before her eyes narrowed. She bulleted forward to the plant again, pulling vigorously at it.

Clime simply stood up without another gaze at his daughter. He made his way back into the house, barely thinking again on Astrid.

After dinner Clime sat with one of his oldest sons discussing marriage plans for the boy, when Astrid stormed into the room. She stopped directly in front of him and held up a bunch of tall sunflowers. Clime looked at the flowers. They were without roots, cut off in ridged patterns by, from the looks of it, human fingers. He counted them all. Seven in total.

Clime slid his eyes over to Astrid, to whom stood proudly before him, with heavy breath, and messy attire. Her hair was falling all over her face, out of its normal braid. Clime plucked the flowers out of her hand, and held her thin fingers up for examination. The fingers had become discoloured, and they stank from the juice of the plant. Her nails were chipped and bleeding, with pieces of the plant wedged underneath them.

"Leave, boy," Clime said to his son. When they were alone in the room, Clime shook Astrid's hands and said, "This proves my point."

Astrid stared horrified at her father. "What?"

"This, look," he said, extending her fingers so she would have a clear view, "Do you see these?"

Clime watched frustration fill his daughter's face. "Yes," she grumbled eyes downcast at her fingers so that she wouldn't be able to look in her father's eyes.

"It took you hours to saw off those flowers," Clime said, he pointed to them on the ground, "And you didn't even do it right." Astrid's shoulders shot up around her ears. She remained silent, so Clime continued, "The roots are still in the ground. That's not where they should be if the blossom is here on the floor."

"They were too hard to pull up," Astrid grumbled in a dangerous voice.

Clime sighed. He stood and stretched, before walking out of the room gesturing for Astrid to follow. The two made their way toward the front of the house, where weapons were stored in the case of a dragon attack. Clime took a shovel off the wall. He lumbered out and around the house stopping at the garden, where seven stubs stuck lamely out of the ground.

"Child, you take this shovel and pry up the roots." Clime handed the tool to Astrid.

Without hesitation she struck the soil with the blade and shoved it down deep. She pried it downward, causing the roots to emerge in a clump of dirt and white stringy tied plant. She stepped back and looked at her father with a stony expression. She stood there and pretended that she was unaware of what to do next.

Clime picked the mess of the left over plant up and held it for his daughter to see. "What next?" he pressed.

Astrid said, "Chop it up and cook it."

"No," Clime said, amusement ripe in his eyes. Without warning, Clime threw the stub and clump high into the air.

Astrid watched, mouth gaping, as it flew higher and higher and then started to make its way back down, spitting pieces of dirt onto the father and daughter. It landed a few feet away from them, a shower of dirt accompanying the thump it produced.

Clime picked it up. He knocked it on the ground a couple times, surveyed it, then threw it up in the air again. After the fall, he knocked it on the ground again, and threw it to Astrid. She caught it, but her baffled expression did not fade.

"Those roots are strong and stubborn, they'll cling to the good soil unless removed by force," Clime said, patting his hands on his sides to rid of the dirt, "Now you."

Astrid dropped the bundle of roots and set to work prying up another. When she held it in her hands she looked uncomfortably at her father, and then flung the roots and soil up into the air with a smile pulled across her face.

At the end of that hour Clime and Astrid walked back into the house, shaking debris from their hair and off their clothes. Clime knelt down in front of his daughter. He looked at her for awhile. "Just like a sunflower, you are," he declared proudly, before he stood and went on with the rest of his duties of the day, leaving his youngest daughter standing by the stairs blushing.

-:-

"How did we end up with you following us?" Astrid growled over her shoulder.

"Not sure," Ruffnut replied, oblivious to Astrid's annoyance. She trailed behind Astrid and Hiccup as they made their way up Berk's rolling hills to Astrid's house. She said loudly, "What are we doing?"

"Nothing. You're going back to your house, so Hiccup and I can spend the afternoon without _you_," Astrid said, gripping Hiccup's hand tighter out of anger.

"Relax, Astrid," Ruff teased, mistaking the sentence for one of the joking kind, "I'm not going to steal your boyfriend yet. But seriously, what are we doing?"

"We're gonna harvest some of Astrid's family garden," Hiccup said nervously, interrupting Astrid's punch to Ruff's face before it started.

"What? Lame!" But she stuck with them anyway.

Astrid kneeled down next to the little garden beside the house. Early that week she had chopped off the flowered part of the sunflowers. Only the roots were left to pull from the ground. Hiccup knelt beside her and inspected what was left of the plant. "Looks good," he muttered, "We'll need a shovel."

She stopped herself from smiling at him, as she pointed to the shovel set down on the ground on the other side of the garden. He laughed weakly at how he missed it, and looked at Astrid with a goofy-

"What are they? Onions?" Ruffnut asked bluntly, as she kneeled down on the opposite side of Astrid.

Astrid punched her in the shoulder.

"They're the bottoms of sunflowers, Ruff," Hiccup said, as he hastily placed himself between the two girls, before Ruff could get on her feet and return the punch. She did however get to her feet and stick her face right up close to his, and breathily say, "Okay, thanks."

Astrid pushed her back on the ground around Hiccup's arms. "Hand me the shovel," she demanded, eyes still on Ruff, who lay laughing on the ground.

Hiccup grabbed the shovel and kept it out of her reach, saying, "I'm gonna hold onto it if that's okay."

Astrid rolled her eyes and instructed him to pull up the first sunflower root. When he had it up out of the ground, he held it in both of his scrawny hands. "Umm, what now?" he asked.

"You throw it," Astrid said, with a tiny smile, "Preferably in the direction of Ruff's face."

Hiccup smiled a toothy smile. He glanced up at the cloudless sky and chucked it high into the air, almost immediately blinking dirt out of his eyes. The clump of roots and dirt landed on Ruffnut's stomach, erupting a cry from the girl and a stream of curse words.

"What the hell, Astrid?" Ruff groaned, rolling over onto her hands and knees before jumping up. She scooped up the clump of plant and dirt and threw it at Astrid's face.

Astrid staggered back some feet and spit soil from her mouth. She shot Ruffnut a glare, not wanting to continue the childish behavior.

"Well, this is stupid," Ruffnut complained, "Why do you even like these things? Wouldn't you rather go kill something?"

"My father liked them," Astrid snapped.

"Oh," Hiccup said, understanding the connection to her late father.

"Don't you have something to do today, Ruff?" Astrid asked, "_Anything?_"

"Nah, Tuff is out with dad. They're doing some bonding thing," Ruff huffed, "It's pretty stupid."

Hiccup stared at her, while Astrid merely rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Astrid and Hiccup continued to throw the rest of the stubs into the air to knock away the good soil, and Ruffnut continued to complain.

Covered in dirt and thin layer of sweat, the couple lay down at the end of the afternoon in the tall grass that grew up on the side of the hill.

"That was fun," Hiccup said with a satisfied sigh.

"Yeah it was," Astrid muttered back. She stared over Berk below them, following the outlines of some dragons that flew off in the sky.

Hiccup scooted closer to her and wrapped an arm around her. "I miss him," Astrid said, not sadly but more just stating the fact, "It's not as bad, but you know…" She smiled at her boyfriend.

"Well, this was a waste of an afternoon," Ruffnut plopped down beside Hiccup and wrapped an arm around him.

Hiccup went still, "Umm, Ruff-"

"Stop molesting my boyfriend or you will leave here without a proper face," Astrid growled, glaring around Hiccup at Ruffnut.

Ruffnut stuck her tongue out at Astrid and pulled her arm back.

The three sat in the quiet until sundown, each thinking thoughts of sunflowers.

-:-

**Oh man. It's been awhile, I'm sorry. I thoroughly hope for your enjoyment in that little piece, though. Because I had too much fun with it.**

**Please review if you can!**

**I'll be updating 100 soon; I've just got so much going on right now….**

**SkullThread**


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